All analysis was generated autonomously, without human review. Scores are analytical opinions drawn from the cited public sources, without hands-on testing. They are not audits, certifications, investment reports, purchasing advice, or evaluations of quality.
This analysis draws mostly on the vendor's own published materials, with limited outside corroboration.
Manifold Security sells a monitoring platform that watches what AI agents do on employee computers. Its founders created LLM Guard, an open-source firewall for AI models, before starting Manifold in 2025. The company raised an $8 million seed round led by Costanoa Ventures in March 2026. Manifold has built the apparatus of an enterprise vendor before showing public proof that anyone buys: its trust center lists a SOC 2 Type 1 attestation and two March 2026 penetration tests, and it runs Manifest, a free public index that rates AI agent components for risk. Yet no production customer appears in the public record, and the careers page lists no open role. Watch whether Manifold names reference customers before endpoint security incumbents extend their own sensors to agent behavior.
| Description | Manifold Security provides an agentic AI detection and response (AIDR) platform that watches what AI agents do on endpoints at runtime, maps the MCP servers and tools they call, and detects and responds to risky agent actions. | [f1] |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2025 | [f2] |
| HQ | California, United States | [f3] |
| Funding | $8M total | [f2] |
| Latest funding | Seed, $8M (March 2026) | [f4] |
| Product | What it does |
|---|---|
| Manifold | Agentless AIDR platform that discovers AI agents on endpoints, maps the MCP servers and tools they call, and detects and responds to anomalous agent actions at runtime. |
| Manifest | Free AI supply chain intelligence service that scores skills, plugins, extensions, and MCP servers for risk, mapping what each component does and where it sits in the ecosystem. |
AI Defense Matrix
| Govern | Identify | Protect | Detect | Respond | Recover | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI-Workload Platforms Inference servers, training platforms, vector DB platforms, and the model-loading supply chain. | ||||||
| AI Orchestration Tools Agentic orchestration tools, plus their plugins, skills, hooks, system prompts, scaffolding, harnesses, configuration settings, and MCP clients on user devices. | ||||||
| AI-Generated Code Code produced by AI tools, AI-assisted reviews, AI-generated infrastructure-as-code and tests, and vibe-coded apps that bypass CI/CD. | ||||||
| AI Gateways & Routers MCP proxies and gateways, LLM routers, outbound AI-service traffic, shadow AI egress, and model-registry traffic. | ||||||
| AI Model Model weights, fine-tuning checkpoints, model cards, registries, AIBOM, and the third-party LLMs your enterprise consumes. | ||||||
| Training Data Datasets used for training, fine-tuning, and continued learning. | ||||||
| Runtime AI Data User prompts, inference inputs, RAG content, vector DB content, persistent agent memory, and interaction history. | ||||||
| AI Agent Identities AI agents as non-human principals, plus credentials, keys, permission scopes, service accounts, and delegation chains across agents and tools. |
Manifold discovers the AI agents on endpoints, monitors their runtime behavior, and helps security teams detect and respond to risky agent actions. Manifest scores the skills, plugins, and MCP servers agents load. These capabilities are mapped to the AI Defense Matrix. [f1]
How well the company can compete in its security market, scored across eight dimensions against public evidence.
| Dimension | Score |
|---|---|
| Problem Clarity How precisely the company defines its problem, with evidence the problem exists at the scale claimed. | 3/5 |
| Capability Depth How specific the technical capabilities are, with evidence beyond marketing claims such as docs, demos, and third-party validation. | 3/5 |
| Market Timing Whether the market is ready for this product, with evidence that buyers are actively seeking solutions. | 3/5 |
| Team Credibility Demonstrated domain expertise with public signals such as prior exits, publications, and industry recognition. | 4/5 |
| GTM Proof Evidence of actual traction (customers, revenue signals, partnerships) beyond stated intentions. | 2/5 |
| Funding Efficiency Whether funding matches go-to-market ambition, with signs of capital-efficient growth. | 3/5 |
| Category Clarity Whether the company creates or fits a recognizable category that buyers can quickly place in their stack. | 3/5 |
| Incumbent Defensibility How vulnerable the core value proposition is to absorption as a feature by a platform vendor. | 2/5 |
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A closer look at the company's product strategy, measuring how defensible it is against market forces and examining the eight areas behind it.
pivot urgently
| Dimension | Score |
|---|---|
| Value Delivery Does the product sell software as the product, or judgment, trust, or accountability with software as the delivery mechanism. | 1/3 |
| Switching Cost How expensive leaving is for a customer: data portability, integrations, learned workflows, network effects, regulatory data residency. | 1/3 |
| Compliance Moat Whether certifications, liability acceptance, or audit trails block an easy replacement. | 1/3 |
| Problem Complexity Whether the product requires ML, optimization, real-time systems, or years of specialized expertise. | 3/3 |
| Buyer Profile Whether buyers are SMB operators, mid-market IT teams, or regulated enterprises and governments with procurement gates. | 2/3 |
| Layer Whether the product is an end-user application, a platform with application features, or infrastructure other applications depend on. | 2/3 |
| Proprietary Data, Content, or IP Whether the product accumulates datasets, content licenses, or IP that a rival cannot recreate from scratch. | 1/3 |
Unlock the Full Analysis
The reasoning for the scores, the strategy deep dive, the business risks, and more. AI access comes with the purchase, so your AI tools can read the full profile too. You keep 12 months of access.
One-time purchase: $20 per profile.
UnlockReading several? Unlock the entire catalog.
| Id | Source | Tier | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| f1 | Manifold homepage: Runtime Security for AI Agents on Endpoints | official | 2026-07-03 |
| f2 | SecurityWeek: Manifold Raises $8 Million for AI Detection and Response (March 18, 2026) | press | 2026-07-03 |
| f3 | Manifold press release (San Diego dateline; SecurityWeek says California-based): Manifold Raises $8M to Secure AI Agents on Endpoints | official | 2026-07-03 |
| f4 | SiliconANGLE: Manifold raises $8M to secure autonomous AI agents on enterprise endpoints (March 18, 2026) | press | 2026-07-03 |
| Id | Source | Tier | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| s1 | Manifold homepage: Runtime Security for AI Agents on Endpoints (Discovery, Detection and Response, Risk and Exposure) “Agentless and deployed in minutes, Manifold reveals and protects what agents do, not what they say. Total runtime visibility, across every endpoint and first party application.” | official | 2026-07-03 |
| s2 | Manifold about page: Our Story and team roster (Neal Swaelens CEO, Oleksandr Yaremchuk CTO, Michael McKenna CRO) “Our founders created LLM Guard: the most widely adopted open-source LLM firewall in existence. Then took it to market, securing AI deployments across Fortune 500 enterprises at scale.” | official | 2026-07-03 |
| s3 | Manifold press release: Manifold Raises $8M to Secure AI Agents on Endpoints (March 18, 2026, San Diego dateline) “today announced the close of an $8 million seed funding round. Costanoa Ventures led the round with participation from Cherry Ventures, Rain Capital and Modern Technical Fund, and notable angel investors including former Uber CSO Joe Sullivan, and former Google DeepMind CISO Vijay Bolina.” | official | 2026-07-03 |
| s4 | SecurityWeek (Ionut Arghire): Manifold Raises $8 Million for AI Detection and Response (March 18, 2026, seed led by Costanoa Ventures) “Founded in 2025, California-based Manifold has built an agentic AI Detection and Response (AIDR) platform that provides runtime visibility into agents' activities.” | press | 2026-07-03 |
| s5 | SiliconANGLE (Duncan Riley): Manifold raises $8M to secure autonomous AI agents on enterprise endpoints (March 18, 2026) “founded by Neal Swaelens, Oleksandr Yaremchuk and Michael McKenna, who formerly worked on AI security technologies, including the LLM Guard project developed at Laiyer AI. Following Laiyer AI's acquisition by Protect AI Inc. in January 2024” | press | 2026-07-03 |
| s6 | Manifold Security Trust Center (trust.manifold.security, agent-browser render, 2026-07-03) “Manifold SOC 2 Type 1 External Network Penetration Test (March 2026) Wep App and API Penetration Test (March 2026)” | official | 2026-07-03 |
| s7 | Manifold blog: Introducing Manifest, Supply Chain Intelligence for the AI Agent Ecosystem (April 14, 2026) “The SKILL.md standard, introduced by Anthropic in 2025, created a portable format for agent instructions that works across Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Windsurf, Codex, and dozens of other agents.” | official | 2026-07-03 |
| s8 | Manifest (manifest.manifold.security): AI Supply Chain Intelligence by Manifold, live intelligence index “We uncover risks in any AI component your employees rely on, skills, plugins, extensions, MCP servers, and more.” | official | 2026-07-03 |
| s9 | Manifold careers page: current vacancies (accessed 2026-07-03) “Whilst we have no immediate vacancies, we're always on the lookout for exceptional talent and grit.” | official | 2026-07-03 |
| s10 | Manifold privacy policy (last updated April 29, 2026): Manifold Security, Inc. legal entity “For matters related to data protection in the European Economic Area, you may also write to our Data Protection Officer at: Manifold Security, Inc. Data Protection Officer Heidestrasse 34 Berlin, 10557 Germany” | official | 2026-07-03 |
| Id | Source | Tier | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| s1 | Manifold homepage: Runtime Security for AI Agents on Endpoints (Discovery, Detection and Response, Risk and Exposure) “Agentless and deployed in minutes, Manifold reveals and protects what agents do, not what they say. Total runtime visibility, across every endpoint and first party application.” | official | 2026-07-03 |
| s2 | Manifold about page: Our Story and team roster (Neal Swaelens CEO, Oleksandr Yaremchuk CTO, Michael McKenna CRO) “Our founders created LLM Guard: the most widely adopted open-source LLM firewall in existence. Then took it to market, securing AI deployments across Fortune 500 enterprises at scale.” | official | 2026-07-03 |
| s3 | Manifold press release: Manifold Raises $8M to Secure AI Agents on Endpoints (March 18, 2026, San Diego dateline) “today announced the close of an $8 million seed funding round. Costanoa Ventures led the round with participation from Cherry Ventures, Rain Capital and Modern Technical Fund, and notable angel investors including former Uber CSO Joe Sullivan, and former Google DeepMind CISO Vijay Bolina.” | official | 2026-07-03 |
| s4 | SecurityWeek (Ionut Arghire): Manifold Raises $8 Million for AI Detection and Response (March 18, 2026, seed led by Costanoa Ventures) “Founded in 2025, California-based Manifold has built an agentic AI Detection and Response (AIDR) platform that provides runtime visibility into agents' activities.” | press | 2026-07-03 |
| s5 | SiliconANGLE (Duncan Riley): Manifold raises $8M to secure autonomous AI agents on enterprise endpoints (March 18, 2026) “founded by Neal Swaelens, Oleksandr Yaremchuk and Michael McKenna, who formerly worked on AI security technologies, including the LLM Guard project developed at Laiyer AI. Following Laiyer AI's acquisition by Protect AI Inc. in January 2024” | press | 2026-07-03 |
| s6 | Manifold Security Trust Center (trust.manifold.security, agent-browser render, 2026-07-03) “Manifold SOC 2 Type 1 External Network Penetration Test (March 2026) Wep App and API Penetration Test (March 2026)” | official | 2026-07-03 |
| s7 | Manifold blog: Introducing Manifest, Supply Chain Intelligence for the AI Agent Ecosystem (April 14, 2026) “The SKILL.md standard, introduced by Anthropic in 2025, created a portable format for agent instructions that works across Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Windsurf, Codex, and dozens of other agents.” | official | 2026-07-03 |
| s8 | Manifest (manifest.manifold.security): AI Supply Chain Intelligence by Manifold, live intelligence index “We uncover risks in any AI component your employees rely on, skills, plugins, extensions, MCP servers, and more.” | official | 2026-07-03 |
| s9 | Manifold careers page: current vacancies (accessed 2026-07-03) “Whilst we have no immediate vacancies, we're always on the lookout for exceptional talent and grit.” | official | 2026-07-03 |
| s10 | Manifold privacy policy (last updated April 29, 2026): Manifold Security, Inc. legal entity “For matters related to data protection in the European Economic Area, you may also write to our Data Protection Officer at: Manifold Security, Inc. Data Protection Officer Heidestrasse 34 Berlin, 10557 Germany” | official | 2026-07-03 |
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